Mas de cirugia y medicina interna

In surgery yesterday I was able to see surgery on a woman who had a tumor in her neck. The doctors cut into her neck, tried to avoid her carotid artery (sometimes unsuccessfully), and cut out the tumor. 

Tumor cut from the right side of the neck

After, I watched virtual surgery. The doctors performed a splenectomy on a little girl using laparoscopy. It was pretty neat! Why they preformed the surgery, I am not sure.

Today I was in internal medicine. It is a more depressing part of the hospital. One man has an autoimmune disease. His skin is covered with scabs and open wounds. The doctors keep netting around his bed and collected blood today for analysis. 

In the bed next to him is a 27 year old woman who is married with three kids. She was having problems back in February but the doctors told her she was fine. After several months and many different misdiagnosis, including anemia, the doctors finally determined it she had Leukemia. Last month she was able to undergo chemotherapy and is going through rehab now. Her story sounded like it could have been on House. She is so pale but looks strong. It's a very different place, internal medicine.

AVISO: this blog contains graphic pictures

For the past two weeks I have been working in clinics. This week they moved me, and two others, to Hospital Civil. There are four general places there: surgery, intensive care, emergency, and gynecology. The last two days Kirstin and I have been in surgery. We start the first hour with the residents as they do rounds on the post-surgery patients. After, we head to the surgical rooms to watch the surgeries. The doctors are very friendly, patient, and work to help you understand what is going on. The rooms are always full of doctors, nurses, students, and others to talk to.

Kirstin and I all scrubbed for surgery

The first surgery we saw was of an 11 year old girl. She had a fistula just above her right ear. The doctors inserted a catheter, stitched the fistula to the catheter, and melted/cut it out. 

Fistula removal in process

The second surgery was for a 78 year old woman. She had a hip replacement some years back but the metal inserts had become disconnected from her leg. The doctors went in, pulled out the old and put in new plates. It takes a lot of work to do that! The doctors had a hard time putting in new plates because they could not get them to fit just right.

Burning/cutting in to the femur

That would be her femur

Screwing it all down

Tools of the trade: screwdriver, hammer, wicked looking wrench

 Today they operated on a 50 year old man. His radius was shorter than his ulna due to a past accident and as a result he did not have full motion of his wrist. The doctors cut into his side, took a piece of bone from his ribs, and after braking the ulna placed the rib bone piece into his arm. They then screwed in a metal plate to hold it all together. After his arm was stitched together they screwed a joint into his arm and hand (through the skin!) to prevent him from being able to move it. They said they would not remove it for two months. 

Putting his ulna back together

On a slightly less grotesque note: Oaxaca is getting ready for the Gualaguetza! There is now a whole street set up with circus rides and food stalls!